Flashcards for Pygmalion

Alfred Doolittle

Alfred Doolittle is Eliza's charming, fast-talking father, a dustman who stands out as one of Shaw's most delightfully subversive comic characters and a tool for sharp social satire.

character

Colonel Pickering

Colonel Pickering is a retired Indian Army officer and respected phonetician whose unexpected meeting with Henry Higgins outside Covent Garden sparks the main wager of the play.

character

Eliza Doolittle

Eliza Doolittle is the main character in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, a Cockney flower girl from Covent Garden whose journey into becoming a respectable duchess drives the play’s story and sharp social commentary.

character

Freddy Eynsford-Hill

Freddy Eynsford-Hill is a minor yet symbolically important character in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion.

character

Mrs. Eynsford-Hill

Mrs. Eynsford-Hill is a minor yet socially significant character in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, representing the genteel, struggling middle class that clings tightly to the facade of respectability.

character

Mrs. Higgins

Mrs. Higgins is Henry Higgins's sophisticated and perceptive mother.

character

Mrs. Pearce

Mrs. Pearce is Professor Higgins's steady, no-nonsense housekeeper, providing a grounding moral perspective in the eccentric household she oversees.

character

Professor Henry Higgins

Professor Henry Higgins is the brilliant yet rude phonetician at the heart of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion.

character

“The great secret, Eliza, is not having bad manners or good manners or any other particular sort of manners, but having the same manner for all human souls.”

This line is spoken by Henry Higgins to Eliza Doolittle in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion (1913).

Henry Higgins

“I sold flowers. I didn't sell myself. Now you've made a lady of me I'm not fit to sell anything else.”

This line is delivered by Eliza Doolittle to Professor Henry Higgins in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion (1913).

Eliza Doolittle

“The difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she's treated.”

This line is delivered by Eliza Doolittle in George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play Pygmalion, specifically in Act V during a tense confrontation with Professor Henry Higgins.

Eliza Doolittle · Act V

“I'm a good girl, I am.”

This line is spoken by Eliza Doolittle in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion (1913), notably in Act I when we first meet her as a Cockney flower girl in Covent Garden.

Eliza Doolittle · Act I

“Eliza, you are to live here for the next six months, learning how to speak beautifully.”

This line is spoken by Professor Henry Higgins to Eliza Doolittle in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion (1913), early in the play when Higgins makes his famous bet with Colonel Pickering.

Professor Henry Higgins · Act II

“I won't be passed over. I won't be ignored.”

This bold statement is made by Eliza Doolittle in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion (1913).

Eliza Doolittle

“Pickering: does it occur to you, Higgins, that the girl has some feelings?”

This line is spoken by Colonel Pickering to Professor Henry Higgins in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion (1913).

Pickering

“Independence? That's middle class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.”

This line is spoken by Alfred Doolittle, Eliza's scheming dustman father, in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion (1913).

Alfred Doolittle · Act II

“You'll get nothing out of me. I'm not going to be made a fool of.”

This line is spoken by Eliza Doolittle in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion (1913), likely during the early scenes when Professor Henry Higgins and Colonel Pickering first meet her as a flower girl in Covent Garden.

Eliza Doolittle · Act I

“I have to live for others and not for myself: that's middle class morality.”

This line is spoken by Alfred Doolittle, Eliza's roguish and philosophical father, in Act V of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion (1913).

Alfred Doolittle · Act V

“You see, really and truly, apart from the things anyone can pick up (the dressing and the proper way of speaking, and so on), the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she's treated.”

This line is spoken by Eliza Doolittle near the end of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion (1913) during a key moment where she considers her transformation and what it really means.

Eliza Doolittle

Eliza's Flowers

In George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, Eliza Doolittle's flowers symbolize her true identity, dignity, and economic struggles as a working-class woman.

Eliza's Transformation in Dress

In George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, Eliza Doolittle's changing outfits highlight the flexible and constructed aspects of social class and identity.

Higgins's Phonetics Laboratory

In George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, Higgins's phonetics laboratory embodies the mechanical side of class transformation and the troubling mix of scientific expertise with human ownership.

Rain and the Covent Garden Setting

In Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, the rain and the Covent Garden backdrop highlight the arbitrary divide between social classes and the randomness that shapes one's position in society.

The Slippers

In George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, Eliza Doolittle's slippers highlight the divide between her true self and the new identity that Higgins forces upon her.

Dramatic Monologue

Higgins often takes over scenes with lengthy monologues that reveal his character more than any conversation could.

Irony

The play's central irony lies in its structure: the experiment intended to demonstrate that class is simply about speech ultimately reveals the opposite — that when Eliza gains the accent, she doesn't gain any of the social benefits that come with it.

Allegory

Shaw draws on the Ovidian myth of Pygmalion and Galatea, turning the play into a cautionary tale about the risks of creating without taking responsibility.

Metaphor

Shaw's most enduring metaphor compares language to social currency.

Juxtaposition

Shaw contrasts Eliza's Cockney vowels with Higgins's received pronunciation right from their first meeting, but the more significant comparison is moral.

Personification

Language is personified in the play as a social gatekeeper with the ability to include or exclude individuals.

Hyperbole

Higgins is Shaw's great engine of hyperbole.

Simile

Mrs. Pearce warns Higgins that Eliza is 'not a pet dog to be trained and then abandoned,' which sets up the play's central simile of Eliza as a domestic animal.

Volta

The play's structural shift occurs in Act V when Eliza refuses to go back to Higgins, stating, 'I can do without you.'

Aporia

Shaw introduces real ambiguity at the end of the play: it doesn’t provide a clear answer about whether Eliza reunites with Higgins.

Epistrophe

Eliza's powerful Act V speech emphasizes the phrase 'I can' at the end of each statement — 'I can do without you,' 'I can be independent,' 'I can find a man who will treat me as a human being.'

Motif

The motif of clothing runs throughout the play as a clear indicator of Eliza's transformation and its boundaries.

portico

A covered entrance porch supported by columns, attached to the front of a building. Here it provides shelter from the rain for the crowd gathered outside the church.

noun · Chapter 1

kerbstone

Belonging to the gutter or street; crude and uneducated. Used here to describe the rough, unpolished English spoken by someone raised in poverty on the streets.

adjective · Chapter 1

articulate

Able to speak clearly and expressively, forming distinct, well-pronounced words. Higgins uses it to contrast refined speech with Eliza's rough Cockney sounds.

adjective · Chapter 1

crooning

Humming or singing softly in a low, murmuring way. Higgins uses it dismissively to describe Eliza's slovenly, tuneless vocal habits.

verb · Chapter 1

Cockney

Relating to the working-class dialect and accent of the East End of London, marked by dropped consonants and distinctive vowel sounds that Higgins considers socially disqualifying.

adjective · Chapter 1

phonetics

The scientific study of the sounds of human speech — how they are produced, transmitted, and perceived. Higgins is a professional expert in this field.

noun · Chapter 2

undeserving poor

A Victorian social label for poor people judged to be poor through their own fault or laziness, as opposed to the 'deserving poor' who were considered victims of circumstance. Doolittle uses it to describe himself with ironic pride.

phrase · Chapter 2

middle class morality

The conventional code of respectable behaviour — thrift, sobriety, duty, and propriety — associated with the middle class. Doolittle resents it as a set of constraints that punish the pleasures of the poor.

phrase · Chapter 2

up agen

Cockney dialect for 'up against,' meaning constantly in conflict with or blocked by something. It reflects Doolittle's uneducated speech pattern.

phrase · Chapter 2

at-home day

A scheduled afternoon when a lady of society formally receives visitors in her own home, a common upper-class Victorian and Edwardian social custom.

noun · Chapter 3

small talk

Light, polite conversation about trivial or uncontroversial topics, used to fill social occasions. Mrs. Higgins's guests remark on Eliza's performance of it.

noun · Chapter 3

dustbin

A large outdoor rubbish bin for household waste. Higgins uses it figuratively and flippantly to suggest Eliza should simply be discarded if she causes problems.

noun · Chapter 3

sacred

Here used in a practical, not religious, sense: untouchable or off-limits. Higgins means a pupil must be treated as someone who cannot be punished or dismissed.

adjective · Chapter 3

presumptuous

Boldly overstepping one's proper place or importance; arrogantly assuming credit that belongs to someone else. Higgins uses it to put Eliza firmly back in her place.

adjective · Chapter 4

tyrant

A person who uses power cruelly and unjustly, with no regard for others' feelings or rights. Eliza applies it to Higgins to describe his domineering, bullying treatment of her.

noun · Chapter 4

wager

A bet; an agreement in which something of value is staked on the outcome of an uncertain event. Higgins's boast about transforming Eliza is framed as a competitive wager.

noun · Chapter 1

bequest

Money or property left to someone in a will. Doolittle receives an unexpected inheritance that forces him into the respectable middle-class life he despises.

noun · Chapter 5

moralist

A person who holds and expresses strong views about right and wrong conduct. Higgins uses it ironically of Doolittle, whose 'morality' is a cheerful rejection of conventional virtue.

noun · Chapter 5

idiotic

Extremely foolish or absurd. Higgins uses it as a backhanded compliment, admitting he has learned something even from ideas he considers ridiculous.

adjective · Chapter 5

humbly

In a modest, self-effacing way, without pride. Coming from the arrogant Higgins, the word signals a rare and significant moment of genuine self-reflection.

adverb · Chapter 5

deportment

The way a person holds and carries their body; posture and physical bearing. Higgins trains Eliza in deportment as part of making her pass as an upper-class lady.

noun

depressing

Here used in its older, stronger sense of deeply offensive and dispiriting, not merely sad. Higgins applies it to Eliza's accent as something that degrades everyone who hears it.

adjective · Chapter 1

genteel

Trying to appear refined and upper-class in manners and habits, often while actually having little money. It describes the Eynsford Hills' social pretension despite their poverty.

adjective · Chapter 1

immaculate

Perfectly clean, neat, and flawless in appearance, with not a single detail out of place. It describes Eliza's transformed look when she enters Mrs. Higgins's drawing room.

adjective · Chapter 3